The Broken and Unbreakable
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Genre likely subject to change later on. As we understand that not all things are set in stone, what if what we thought was supposed to happen never does? And what we didn't expect to happen at all begins to happen a lot? No one shows up when they're supposed to, events don't turn out like they're meant to, and the unknown may turn into the new normal for those that can't take it.
1. The Broken and Unbreakable

Creation began on 05-25-19

Creation ended on 05-25-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and Unbreakable

A/N: The unexpected can occur to change fate and destroy what is believed to be destiny…and create something else entirely.

NERV Commander Gendo Ikari was a man of many things, and patience was clearly not one of them. The Third Angel hadn't arrived…and neither had the Third Child. Both were supposed to have arrived within the day and Tokyo-2 should've been reduced to a crater while Tokyo-3 should've been a battleground.

Captain Misato Katsuragi had arrived at the train stop where the boy was supposed to be, but the train hadn't shown up in over three hours.

If there was one of the few things Gendo didn't like about the world, it was the delays in his goals and the incompetence of his agency's personnel.

_It doesn't take a train over three hours to arrive at a stop,_ he thought as he sat in his office. _That useless boy must've run away like he always does. He will always be useless._

The door to his office opened and an elderly man dressed in gray came in.

"Ikari, have… Haven't you been watching the news?!" The elderly man yelled. "It's been all over the media!"

"What are you talking about, Fuyutsuki?"

"I'm talking about the train, Ikari. The one your son was on. It was derailed! That's why he didn't show up!"

Gendo turned on the small television in his office and turned to the news that was currently playing, seeing that somewhere in the countryside, there was a train laying scattered everywhere.

"…Firefighters and paramedics are still searching through the debris, but it's an ongoing nightmare," a woman reported from a helicopter overlooking the wreckage. "One after another, another victim is found beyond any hope of aid by these brave men and women. It's anyone's guess if there's any survivors left to be saved."

On the screen, the number of the derailed train was shown, and Gendo needed to make sure that this train was the same one that the Third Child had been made to take on the way to Tokyo-2.

"Do we have a copy of the receipt of the boy's ticket?" He asked the elder.

"We do, and it was the Forty-Seventeen."

"Hold on," the woman reporter went, and her cameraman was looking down at the wreckage, seeing several firefighters working under a large piece of one of the passenger cars. "Wait, I think they've… Yes, yes, they have. They seemed to have found a survivor! They found one!"

The shot was sketchy at best, but the cameraman had gotten a glimpse of what appeared to be…a small boy being carried away by the paramedics after the firefighters pulled him out from under the debris.

"Where is Captain Katsuragi?" Gendo asked.

"On her way back to base," Fuyutsuki answered.

"Find out which hospital that survivor is being taken to…and confirm their identity before sending her to make sure."

To be continued…

A/N: Congratulations will go to whoever's first review can reveal where the inspiration for this story came from.


	2. The Awakening Confusion

Creation began on 05-25-19

Creation ended on 05-25-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and Unbreakable: The Awakening Confusion

A/N: Props to Lexarius for figuring out the inspiration. cegi85 almost got it, but got the title wrong. Additional congratulations for Akin2018. Here goes the next chapter.

The sounds of a beep and people talking stirred young Shinji Ikari from his slumber…or what he thought was slumber, opening his eyes and seeing that he was under fluorescent lighting.

"Another…unfamiliar ceiling," he uttered, slowly getting up.

His clothes, black slacks and a white, short-sleeve shirt, appeared messed up when he noticed some dirt and rips on them, and he was noticing something else, as well.

_What's going on here? _He wondered as he saw some people in blue scrubs surrounding someone nearby on a gurney.

A woman in a white coat and holding a clipboard came over to him and shone a light on his face.

"Can you hear me, young man?" She asked him, moving the light around in front of his.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered her, and she then took out a stethoscope and put it on his chest.

"I'm going to ask you some questions now," she spoke. "Do you think you can answer them?"

"Yes, ma'am," he answered again.

"Do you remember being on a train?"

"Yes."

"Do you recall where you were sitting?"

"I was…sitting by the window, looking at the trees."

"And did you get up at any point during the ride?"

"No. Oh (he saw one of the people in scrubs move away to reveal a person's bandaged body with a red spot that expanded across their chest)…"

"Are you sure you didn't get up at any point during the train ride?"

"I…I never got up, ma'am."

"Can you tell me your name now?"

"It's Shinji Ikari."

"And did you have any friends or family on the train with you?"

"I don't have any friends and I don't have much in the way of family. I was on my way to Tokyo-2 to meet with someone that was supposed to take me to see my father."

"Are you currently on any medication or are using any recreational drugs?"

"No, ma'am, I'm not on anything. Um…"

"Last question: What is the last thing you remember before waking up?"

"I…just sitting by the window, looking at the trees…uh, why are you looking at me like that?"

During the questioning and answering, Shinji noticed that the woman was looking at him like something was wrong with him.

"Looking at you like what, sir?" She asked him.

"You…you're looking at me like there's something wrong…and your questions have been… What happened? Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital in Yamakita, Kanagawa," she explained to him. "The train you were on derailed due to some sort of malfunction. The firefighters and paramedics found you along with a woman a few moments later. Unlike you, however, she wasn't as lucky; her head was cracked open, most of the bones in her body are like a jigsaw puzzle and she's experiencing multiple organ failure due to blood loss and infection. And as for why I'm looking at you the way I am, there are two reasons for that. One is that in a few more minutes…you'll officially be the only survivor of the train wreck. And the second reason is…you were found buried under debris…but you were found without a single bone in your body that should've been broken. There's no bruising on your skin, no ruptured organs, blood loss, not even signs of brain damage. It's like you weren't there when this happened…and yet you were there. It's…an unprecedented miracle. The sole survivor of a train wreck…and you're completely unharmed."

Shinji looked as the people in scrubs carted the bloody woman that wasn't as lucky as he had been away after calling her time of death.

"Is there anyone you'd like for me to call?" The woman in the white coat asked him.

"No," he answered her. "I don't really have anyone worth calling, even for this."

-x-

"…Are you sure he gave his name as Shinji Ikari?" Misato Katsuragi asked the woman at the reception table as she came to the hospital to confirm the identity of the survivor.

"Yes, ma'am," she answered her. "It's hard to not know his name. Everyone's gonna know who he is now; he's the only survivor of a train wreck. Two-hundred-thirteen of the other passengers, men, women and children are all dead. Is that an act of the Kami…or the work of the Devil? You tell me."

"Has anyone checked his contact information?"

"We did, but he told us he has nobody to call, even for something as extreme as this. His aunt and uncle don't seem the least bit concerned that he was in a train wreck when one of the nurses called, and as for his father, nobody wants to make that call at all. Everyone knows who his father is and would rather not be concerned with informing him."

"Well, when will he be discharged?"

"As soon as someone with authorization comes to get him, otherwise, he's free to leave of his own accord since he's fine, despite this unusual circumstance of his."

Misato then handed her a letter with the NERV logo on it, explaining that she was here on orders from the boy's father to bring him to him.

-x-

Walking down the hall with nothing but what remained of the clothes he had on when the train derailed, Shinji received odd looks from the people affiliated with the people from the train that didn't make it. They were either looks of fright, scorn or confusion; how could he survive while everyone else died, how could they have been crushed, mangled, ripped up, mutilated and removed from existence while he alone didn't have so much as a cut on his face? There was no way he could explain any of it to any of them. Not even Shinji knew how to explain what he went through.

_How? _He wondered as he saw the entrance to the ground floor. _How did I end up the only survivor of a train wreck…while everyone else died?_

To be continued…

A/N: Nobody ever says that life is fair, just one unexpected happening after another.


	3. Grief

Creation began on 05-26-19

Creation ended on 05-28-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and the Unbreakable: Grief

Tokyo-3 looked like it had been informed of what happened in the train wreck because it seemed like less people were out and about. It had only been two days since the catastrophe…and there wasn't any doubt that people all over the country knew about Shinji Ikari. Under normal circumstances, people would've thought nothing of any that survived such incidents and gone on with their lives, but these weren't such circumstances; nobody ever thought to take into consideration that such information like the name of this particular survivor was likely to be restricted.

Shinji Ikari's status was public knowledge, making him both well-known…and well-feared.

Not even NERV could do anything to change that.

-x-

"Still nothing?" Misato asked Ritsuko during the third synchronization test of Shinji, watching said boy on the monitor inside the testing plug.

"Nothing," the faux-blond woman responded, confused by this. "Even if he wasn't physically injured, there should still be some degree of synchronization with the Eva. But…there's nothing. No measure of any connection to the Eva. It's like he's not even in the plug."

"Well, it's not like he's had any good times since he got here. He wakes up to find out he's the only survivor of a devastating train wreck, and he gets weird looks from nearly everyone like he's supposed to know what happened and how he alone survived. And then, there are his relatives; his aunt and uncle didn't call to say if he showed up…or even if he was okay after that day, and his father's another story. He only tells Shinji that he's here to pilot the Eva after more than a decade of being absent from his life. How is he supposed to adjust to anything after all this?"

"Well, if he's not able to sync with the Eva after three different attempts, Commander Ikari will be upset with our results. Or lack of results, to be blunt."

-x-

_Lack of Reunion_

The drive to Tokyo-3 wasn't a positive one. Misato found it bothersome to be with someone that probably should've been on a date with someone else, or studying for a test, even just hanging out with people, anything than what the agency she worked for was going to say to him. Or worse, he should've been in the hospital in a coma or with a broken arm and leg, ruptured organs or something instead of getting the visual third degree from others.

"_My sister was on that train!" _A man yelled as she led Shinji to her car. _"How the Hell did she die while you got away without so much as a scratch on you?!"_

It was only because the man was grieving, but there wasn't any doubt that others were wondering the same thing. But the truth was that Shinji couldn't explain how or why. He was completely clueless and didn't expect to receive answers.

"_It hasn't been a good day for you, hasn't it?" _She asked him as she drove down to the Geo-Front.

"_No," _he answered.

She noticed how he was looking at his hands, how he opened and closed them. Most likely, he was still processing everything.

"_Were there really two-hundred-thirteen other people besides me on that train?"_ He had asked her.

"_That's what they're saying," _she explained to him.

"_That's too many…"_

"_That's too many of what?"_

"_That's too many people that didn't have to die."_

She suspected that he was depressed over it. Not even the sight of the Geo-Front and NERV HQ helped to snap him out of it. Of course, the visit to his father's office…didn't help to fix his depression, either.

"_It's been awhile," _Gendo spoke to him when Misato brought him over. _"I'll explain why I had you brought here. You were expected to arrive over five hours ago when your train derailed. Of course, nothing happened the way they were expected to, including your arrival. You're here for our Evangelion Project. Doctor Ritsuko Akagi will brief you on it. Are there any questions?"_

_Not much of a talker to his own son,_ thought Misato as she waited to hear Shinji say anything.

"_You're not even going to ask me?" _He spoke to his father.

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_You should already know what I mean…and you haven't the mindset to ask me. You know, I kept thinking about it during the whole train ride, even during the car ride with Ms. Katsuragi, and I kept getting the same outcome each time: You don't ask me, even when you should. What, am I so unimportant to you that you can't be bothered to do what is most oblivious of you? Maybe I actually died on that train and this is just my purgatory on my way to Hell just for existing. I'll just wait until you do have the nerve to ask me."_

Shinji walked away from him, no doubt in anger over what wasn't spoken, and something Gendo clearly had no understanding of…assuming he even understood at all.

-x-

"…Well, it wasn't like he refused, but he did expect his father to say something to him," Misato told Ritsuko as they walked down the hall to Commander Ikari's office after dismissing Shinji for the day. "I think I know what he wanted him to ask him, even though it was unnecessary for him to say it."

"What did he want to hear from him?" Ritsuko asked her, trying to get her mind off the fact that they needed to find another child to pilot the Eva if Shinji couldn't.

"He just wanted to hear him ask if he was okay. He was in a train wreck, and there's nobody in his family that can't be bothered to ask if he was fine. They hadn't seen each other for over ten years and the father has no words of concern for his son. It's depressing."

"Well, his father's not exactly the understanding type to even understand that his son expects him to be concerned about him. And when he hears of the results of the last test, I doubt he will be concerned."

"So, he can't pilot the Eva if he can't sync with it, no matter what you try. What's the worst-case scenario for us?"

"We'll need to find a Fourth Child as soon as possible."

"And what happens to Shinji? I mean, it's not like we can just send him back to his aunt and uncle's; they're not at all concerned that he was in an accident or that he got here. And if his father's not interested in living with him, he doesn't have anywhere else to go."

-x-

He only ever complained about the inside of the plug smelling like blood once, something that disgusted him to no limit, but they never really told him much about the Eva or why they wanted him for their program like his father stated they would. They didn't even tell him about the three tests he was in that were virtually the same test taken three times within the span of three days. What was the point of having Shinji here if they wouldn't tell him anything else about the reason they needed him here to begin with?

"…So, are you going to the memorial service tomorrow?" Shinji heard someone say while he was in the park, sitting on a bench looking at Lake Ashi.

"Yeah, my wife and brother-in-law were on the train. My son's not happy about how I had to tell him that his mother and uncle were gone. What about you?"

"All I had of my family was my wife and daughter," the other guy responded, "and the worst thing about it was that they were coming here to check out apartment selections. Maybe if I hadn't signed up to join NERV, they'd still be alive."

"A lot of people have their regrets."

Shinji sighed as he couldn't help but fathom how many of the people on the train were on their way to Tokyo-3. He was still wondering if maybe he was just lost in purgatory on his way to Hell just for existing in a world where his own relatives despised him and wanted nothing to do with him.

"…I heard his own father isn't worried about him," he heard a bunch of women talking not too long after the two men had walked away. "What kind of man doesn't even check to see if their kid is fine?"

"An unpleasant one, that's for sure," answered another woman. "I mean, he alone survived…and the guy treats him like nothing happened at all. Why does he even have a kid if he wants nothing to do with him since he showed up?"

As Shinji got up, he heard a loud, roaring sound nearby…followed by the sound of…tires? He turned around to his left…and saw high beams obscuring his vision.

-x-

"…How can this be?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked Ritsuko while they were in Gendo's office. "Was there some sort of glitch in the system?"

"No, sir," she explained to them. "We ran the test three times, and he showed a zero-percent synchronization with the Eva. We triple-checked the system got the same results. The Third Child simply can't be synced with the Eva. He's of no use to us."

"How is this possible, Dr. Akagi?" Gendo demanded. "He should've been able to sync with the Eva, even if only by a minor degree. Was he even trying?"

"We instructed him, and he followed every step, but nothing happened. We've gotten test results with the First and Second Children, and they're stable. A pilot candidate that simply can't be synced…is a shot in the dark. It's unprecedented."

Gendo was displeased. If he couldn't use his son to pilot the Eva and deal with the Angels, then he couldn't reach his goal. And if the Angels didn't show up, then mankind was at a virtual dead end. Everything he sacrificed for had hinged on his son being able to pilot the Eva, to be manipulated into piloting it above all else.

"Where is the Third Child now?" He asked Ritsuko.

"He was seen heading out of the base and into the city," she answered.

"Bring him back here."

The faux-blond left the office then, leaving the two commanders alone.

-x-

Ring-ring! Misato heard her phone ring as she drove around the streets of the city.

"Katsuragi, speaking," she answered when she came to a stoplight. "Where was this?!"

She put the pedal to the metal and drove to the park; Section Two had her listed as a contact for the Third Child in case he was involved in any other incidents where his life was threatened. Upon reaching the park, she saw two ambulances nearby and a gurney being rushed away by paramedics.

"What happened here?" She asked the Section Two agents that came over to her.

"The story's sketchy at best, but from what the witnesses claim, a woman in a red Toyota Camry drove into the park…and tried to run the Third Child over," one of them explained.

"Where is he?!" She gasped, running to the other ambulance and seeing only three adults getting tended to. "Where is he?!"

"I'm right here," she heard Shinji's voice and saw him sitting in a police cruiser that was there, holding a bottle of water in his right hand.

"Are you alright?" She asked him, but then noticed something off with him.

"Am I cursed or something?" He asked her. "Do I have a target painted somewhere on me that others can see that says, _'This is Shinji Ikari, the unwanted son of Gendo Ikari. Can somebody take the time to try and kill him?' _that I don't notice?!"

It was his shirt and pants. They looked like they had been soaked, ripped…and dirtied by something big and reckless…and he'd still been wearing them. Even his hair was unkempt, and he kept it tidy.

"Officer," she turned away to a policeman nearby, "exactly what happened here?"

"We're having a hard time finding out ourselves, ma'am, but…he was reported by some of the witnesses being hit by the car and forced into the lake. The paramedics found him wading out of the water and back onto the ground, but beyond that… Well, look at him. He should be taking a dirt nap after what happened to him, but all he looks like is that he needs a change of clothes and a bath!"

There's no way Misato would've believed this if she hadn't seen it, but this was the second time Shinji had been involved in some sort of vehicular misfortune, and this time there were people that saw it go down in front of them.

_What is going on here? _She wondered.

To be continued…

A/N: All explanations come in due time. How many of you think Gendo was worse than ever for not asking Shinji if he was alright?


	4. The truth is always full of pain

Creation began on 06-01-19

Creation ended on 01-17-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and Unbreakable: The truth is always full of pain

A/N: Just because you can't be physically harmed…doesn't mean you can't be hurt.

It went viral. Nothing NERV did could undo what was out there for the world to see. Not that they were even trying, that is.

The attempted murder of Shinji Ikari near the lake had gotten over three-million hits, curtesy of those with camera phones and access to the Internet. Even knowledge of the woman that tried to kill him was made public by certain gossipers; the woman had lost her husband and daughter on the same train he was on, and she believed he caused the derailment to happen. It wasn't a hidden assumption that some believed that Shinji was involved, but they would have a hard time proving he was a suspect when they tried to evaluate his background; just because his parents were scientists didn't mean he carried the gene, and his very family life was pathetic. He had to have been the only person in the entire country, if not the whole world, that was abandoned by his father shortly after the death of his mother…and left with people that didn't care about him more than they did their own kid.

But such a truth left tension that didn't fade over the years. It just got worse as time passed.

"How is he?" Ritsuko asked Misato two hours after Shinji was brought back to the base.

"What do you think?" She countered, irritable over the situation. "Someone out there tried to kill him because they thought he was responsible for that train wreck, and instead of killing him, they just caused more problems. He thinks he's cursed or something, like he has a target sign on his back that tempts people to try to kill him."

"But…didn't the police say that he wasn't hurt?"

"Not physically, and that's the problem. Any normal person would've been injured or dead after getting hit by a car going at top speed towards them, but it doesn't seem like Shinji's normal at all. Only his clothes were messed up."

-x-

Most people didn't believe in deviance. There was something about how everything that happens happen for a reason, no matter what they believed in. If an earthquake happens in a city that experiences them often and more than fifty men and women die, then it was meant to happen. But if a tsunami happens in a town that's too far from a coastal are and only eight out of forty-seven men and women of advanced age that were expected to die in a few months, then that was an act of something beyond fate.

And this was a new twist in the courses of fate: Someone emerging from the waters of a ruined city, looking at their surroundings…and then at themselves. It was a man, dressed in a dark green suit with a red circle on their chest. He wore glasses or some sort of visor that appeared to be made out of bone, covering his eyes and masking much of the emotion of disgust that stuck on his face.

"Wretched Lilin," he uttered as he looked down at his hands. "So…this is how it feels to deviate, to change from the original strategy and try something new that might not work out for you. Okay, if this is the way it's gotta be now, then I'll play along until further notice. Wretched Lilin, still, always being the ones to distort the world we were blessed with receiving in the beginning. They have desecrated our home, our future, our very birthright, and now…one way or another…we will take it all back."

-x-

"That's odd," went Shigeru in Central Dogma.

"What is it?" Hyuga questioned.

"About two seconds ago, I picked up a blue pattern, which should've registered as an Angel, but then it disappeared," he answered. "Should I report it?"

"It probably wouldn't matter. We're not prepped for using the Eva yet."

"The Third Child still can't be used?"

"That's what Dr. Akagi has confirmed," said Maya to the two, going over the evaluated data collected on the failed synchronization attempts. "Even though there was nothing physically wrong with him, the Eva failed to synch with the Third Child. He was given a clean bill of health, but that means nothing if we can't use him to pilot the Eva."

"What if it's nothing physical?" Hyuga suggested. "What if the years of neglect did a number on his psyche?"

"Even if he suffered from a borderline psychosis, he should still be able to synch with the Eva."

Beep! Shigeru's console picked up the same blue pattern again, but then it stopped.

-x-

So, this was how it was for Shinji now as he packed his bag. His father was just…letting him go…and all because he wasn't compatible with some skyscraper-sized action figure they had built to save to the world. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. People either trying to kill him or just exploit him.

Sometimes, he just wanted for this madness that was his life to cease, for someone to tell him that he could finally let go of any hopes he had for something good to come out of all this bad that hung on him like a sickness or a weight that he couldn't shake off. Though, in truth, he had expected this to happen, no matter what he did, to be cast aside like nothing ever happened. He just didn't expect it to be so soon.

So, what, was he supposed to go back to his aunt and uncle's? Was he supposed to go to a shelter someplace where anonymity was preferred so that nobody would try to kill him again? All his father told him after he was brought back to the Geo-Front was that he was being relieved of his obligation to NERV and vacate the premises once he had gathered his personal effects. How there were times where Shinji just wanted to…put an end to his suffering.

Zipping his bag closed, the fourteen-year-old boy pulled it over his right shoulder and prepared to leave this place behind.

-x-

Fifteen seconds. This strange, blue pattern showed up in between fifteen-second intervals, and each time, it always appeared in a new spot on the geographical map, always moving inward, closing in on Tokyo-3.

"Is this an Angel?" Misato asked Ritsuko.

"It can't be," the faux-blond responded. "The blue pattern would be constant, not flickering."

"It keeps moving a few miles inward," said Shigeru to them. "If it keeps this up, it'll be in Tokyo-3 under half an hour."

"Prepare the Eva for launch," went Gendo to them.

"Can we risk using Rei?" Fuyutsuki questioned him.

"She's not dead yet. Have her on standby."

Gendo could've had Section Two look for Shinji and escort him back to the base, but he decided not to believe that the previous synchronization attempts with Unit-01 were faulty. If his son couldn't be used to pilot the Eva, then he was a waste of time and resources.

"Are you actually letting your son go?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo as they walked down the hall to Central Dogma. "Are you sure that's a wise choice?"

"If he can't synch with the Eva, he's of no use to NERV," he answered him coldly. "In order to face the Angels, NERV requires people able to connect at some degree with the Eva, and this boy isn't one of them."

"Ikari, he was in a train accident that killed over two-hundred people, was knocked into a lake by one of the people that lost loved ones on that train, and has had to put up with some measure of survivor's guilt and the unanswerable questions of how and why he was the only one that survived and why he wasn't harmed, even though both events should've caused him some type of injury. Maybe you should go ask him the question he expected of you when he got here?"

"I don't have time to waste on a needy child."

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki!" A female worker yelled as she ran down the hall. "This is bad! This is very bad!"

"What are you talking about?" Fuyutsuki demanded of her.

"The Angel is here! Except it's not what it seems!"

"The Angel is here?" Gendo questioned. "Already?"

-x-

"…I can't believe they tasked me with finding you," Shinji heard someone say as he saw a man in front of him, dressed in a dark green suit with some strange shades on his face. "You're quite unusual for a member of the Lilin, young man."

They were right outside the NERV base, so Shinji couldn't excuse the possibility that this guy was addressing someone other than himself.

"I do hope that you can forgive me," the man expressed, removing his facial covering, revealing pitch-black eyes that reflected Shinji's face in front them. "My name is Sachiel, son of Adam and his Messenger of the Water…and you…are going to die today."

Then this man, Sachiel, rushed towards Shinji and bashed into him, sending the boy off his feet and flying against the entrance door to the metal pyramid!

Shinji quickly got up and was again surprised that he was unharmed, despite being run into by a man that hit him like the woman with the car had.

"This isn't personal for me, you should know," he heard Sachiel say to him. "The only problem I have with you is… Well, you Lilin are always the same, no matter what your generation is. You're a plague that spreads across the globe, destroying everything in your wake. But in order to take it all back, I must remove those that would endanger the movement back to harmony, which includes you because you are a threat."

"How am I a threat? I'm only fourteen! What'd I ever do to you?!" Shinji demanded. "What, did you know someone that was on the train that derailed and blame me for their death?! I had nothing to do with that! I didn't kill anyone!"

"What is a train? I haven't lost anyone because of you due to some derailing. You're just a threat due to existing, like the rest of you Lilin. As I've said, this isn't personal."

Shinji was confused now. Did this Sachiel guy not have it out for him because of the train accident? If this wasn't about that, then why was he here trying to kill him?

-x-

"…The blue pattern's stable…and coming from that man," Maya revealed as everyone in Central Dogma saw Sachiel fighting the Third Child in the hallway in front the base entrance.

"You're saying the Angel's…a man?" Misato questioned.

"But…that shouldn't be possible," Ritsuko expressed; NERV was tasked with dealing with the Angels, but they were expecting large monsters, not monsters that resembled people.

On the screens, Sachiel grabbed Shinji by his head…and slammed him against a wall, repeatedly until it was starting to wear down and show specks of red. Then, he threw Shinji, who only displayed a nosebleed that appeared minor, up into the air, slamming his body into the ceiling.

"I think there's a special name for your kind, boy," they heard him say to Shinji. "You're an Unbreakable, a rare specimen that's harder to injure. If you were in an accident where many people died while you alone survived, then you're certainly an Unbreakable. I've always wanted to kill an Unbreakable. You may not be susceptible to anything life-threatening, but you can still die. You Lilin are the most fragile creatures that ever stole this world from us."

"Stole this world? You sound as though you're quick to judge everyone for something that only one person or a handful of people did to wrong you."

"Another reason to say that killing you isn't personal, and if you're the only Unbreakable left in this world…then that makes you the most important person that these inferior Lilin will want…just to protect themselves because the demons they built to pervert my father are as worthless as their flesh is. Surely, you must have noticed by now that you're not exactly treated in any way that is at all like the way these Lilin treat their own. Even as a race of flawed and separate loners, they would spout on and off about these trivialities they call love and friendship, the very things that some of them actually take for granted. Have any of them ever shown you love? Have any of them ever given you their friendship? Do your so-called parents even bother to admit any type of feelings they have towards you…to you?"

Shinji looked down in thought, probably reflecting on his past.

"Send in security," Gendo ordered; his concern wasn't his son's safety, but the capture or demise of this Angel that looked like one of them…and whatever proof there was to what this Angel had expressed to Shinji being whatever it called him.

"I'm not exactly…of any concern to anybody," they heard Shinji respond to the Angel. "And you're right. They haven't treated me the way they would treat most others. My own father despises me…and he doesn't even know a damn thing about me."

"A pity," Sachiel expressed. "You're practically the most important person alive right now, and everyone treats you like you're a pawn or throwaway, something of insignificance. Why live in their world and protect them…when you should let go of any hopes of a better tomorrow and embrace the end?"

"I don't like this," Ritsuko uttered; either this Angel was more intelligent than they had anticipated or it was playing well-thought out mind games with the Third Child, who was falling prey to such words being spoken because they played to his current state of mind.

"I was already on my way out when you showed up, though," Shinji told the Angel. "I was just…leaving because my father told me I was now a waste of time to him and NERV. Even after everything that has happened…and everything that has yet to happen, he wouldn't even ask me if I was feeling fine. He wouldn't ask me how I was feeling at all, like I wasn't even a person. You know, people said he married into my mother's family, and then he ruined it. Maybe she let him ruin it and that's why my aunt and uncle hate me, as well."

"That wouldn't be too surprising. The opposite of an Unbreakable is a Light Devourer, a type of Lilin that just hates what is and what can never be unless it's on their terms. Light Devourers are essentially a parasitic Lilin that will just cause the death and humiliation of other Lilin for as long as they live, even bringing misery to an Unbreakable because they can do what Light Devourers can't."

"And what is that?"

"Unbreakables inspire the beliefs of acceptance in the unforeseeable future. Unbreakables can install a sense of hope in the darkest of times. What word is it that you would refer to those of your kind that can do what others either can't or won't? Gods? Angels? No, no, that's not right. Oh, yes, it's 'heroes'. Heroes, protectors, guardians. The Unbreakables were always viewed as those, being Lilith's most favorite of the Lilin because they represented her hope. Her Light Devourers, on the other hand, they represented everything that was wrong with the Lilin. I guess you could say that…those like you…were her pride and joy…while those like your father, if he's a Light Devourer…are the crap that was leftover over time."

Gendo felt crossed! There was no way that this Angel could say that he was a Light Devourer, probably only saying that to get in the Third Child's head. Someone like him causing death and humiliation to others? That was ridiculous! People do that to themselves everyday.

"How would I know who is a Light Devourer and who isn't?" Shinji asked the Angel.

"Oh, they broadcast themselves all the time without even trying to hide it," it answered him. "They give off a foul aura, a sign or indication that they're not worth getting to know. The way they give off an expression is always tainted with some form of hidden malice. A smile that's just plain cruel or a plea of desperation when trying to get rid of something they don't want bothering them. Some of them even carry what Adam called the Scars of Malice. Hands seared with wickedness that promise no mercy to any that get in their way."

This made some of the NERV personnel recall the Unit-00 incident where Gendo burned his hands to extract Rei from the Entry Plug. From the rumors they convened, he hadn't seen a doctor about treating them, instead choosing to wear gloves.

"Those scars are permanent due to how little they value anyone around them. The one person they do value above all is either dead or displaced. A Light Devourer with a family will value the spouse over the offspring, even willing to sacrifice the offspring to stay with the spouse or reclaim the spouse. They're worthless as parents…and incapable of living with others. They don't even trust the ones they talk to more than others. So, if your father is one of them, I wouldn't expect anything short of grief from him. An Unbreakable and a Light Devourer cannot coexist in a light and dark world, on any level of society. You…and your father…simply don't go together, no matter how much you might desire his acknowledgement or acceptance of you. He is the darkness to your light that shines in the night, just as you are the light to his darkness that consumes the day. Only one of you actually has a future worth having, but which one?"

-x-

Shinji slid down against the wall onto the floor. If what this Angel said was the truth (and it was starting to seem like it was the truth), then it would explain everything he had to go through in the past. And why it seemed like nothing was getting better with his lack of relationships with people, no matter what he did. An Unbreakable meant to inspire people to accept others? A Light Devourer that loves nobody except their spouse, willing to sacrifice those around them to stay with their spouse?

He wanted to believe that this was a falsehood, but Shinji couldn't find any fault in what Sachiel had revealed to him. As of late, it did seem like his father displayed nothing but contempt towards him more than usual, never saying anything nice to him. His memories of his time lived at his aunt and uncle's never full of any kindness. And now there was something else breaking out of the darkness of his memories: Himself, surrounded by wreckage, people in varying stages of suffering, children either dead or dying, crying for their loved ones, and then himself crawling under a piece of the wreckage and passing out, not because of any injury his body never received…but because he just wanted to hide from the suffering around him.

"The train derailed and exploded," he uttered. "Everyone around me was either killed instantly or injured severely. I crawled over corpses and past people that were going to die soon…and hid under a piece of the train…because their screaming and crying for anyone they loved, that loved them…just hurt worse than people trying to kill me over something I didn't do."

"Life has been unfair to you, hasn't it?" Sachiel asked him.

"More than unfair. It's been plain cruel."

"Such is the way of the Lilin when playing a game with such heightened stakes."

"A game? Is that all this is? It's just some game?"

"Life is a game, and we're all forced to play a role in it. Some find it a sad and inescapable fate, for who would want to lose…and be filled with pain? Not Adam's children, that's for sure. We were here first…and Lilith showed up and stole this world from us. Of course, she and Adam were equals, so they could never truly harm one another without destroying themselves, so they would entrust the rights to this world to their successors, and thus the game was made. Earth was the board, Angels and Lilin were the pieces, and the rules were clear."

Suddenly, men with guns came running down the hallway, raised at Sachiel, who simply scoffed at their pathetic attempt to silence him.

"Unfortunately, they are no different from pawns in a chess game," he expressed, raising his right up, and firing an energy beam at them.

"Aaaaaaurgh!" The men screamed, cut down into pieces and sent falling to the ground.

Shinji couldn't believe that he killed them so calmly and callously.

"Like I've been saying," he told the boy, "it's not personal. The rules were clear, even if most of the Lilin didn't know them or disregarded them. Adam and Lilith would watch from a distance as life went on, carefully letting events transpire to improve their chances of winning the world. Adam's children, such as myself, would fight Lilith's Unbreakables, such as yourself, and the game could only end when a certain number of either side had fallen. Adam was allowed to send twelve of his great ones out against the Lilin…while Lilith was permitted to send four of her Unbreakables to protect them, all the while hampered by her eight Light Devourers. The handicaps were extreme to Lilith's side. If even just one of her Unbreakables could defeat Adam's twelve children sent to face them in a battle to the death, no matter how maimed they were, emotionally, by the Light Devourers that were tasked with causing them as much suffering as possible, then Adam would have to back off and allow the Lilin to exist on his world…until they sent themselves into mass extinction. But…if all the Unbreakables were defeated and only the Light Devourers were left, and they can't fight Adam's children at all because they don't fight for the world or their own, then Lilith would leave, forced to kill her precious Lilin in the process. All the plants, animals, you, your father, everyone that didn't belong here to begin with, would die instantly. So, because you're an Unbreakable, I must ask you this before I press on because this is the way it's gotta be: Will you play the game…or will you embrace the end? Either way works well for me because there seems to only be one of you in existence…and twelve of me. Even if you killed me, there would still be the other eleven, my brothers and sisters, all of whom are just as dangerous as I am. Will you be the hero…or the bystander?"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Hmmfph! Right now, your choice is the only one that matters here. Even if the rest of the Lilin despise you just for existing, Lilith put her faith in you Unbreakables. She put her faith in you because you were her favorite among her children. She had very little to do with the Light Devourers because of their inability to form meaningful bonds with the other Lilin, but for you, she put in the effort to make sure they'd actually care about you. Though, I find that hard to believe; if you've been suffering from these worthless people, I see no reason for you to serve as their protector. You should just embrace death. It won't matter if they hate you for giving up, they're not going to be around long enough to even care."

Shinji looked over at the people that were just killed by Sachiel. They were people that he didn't even know, that didn't know him. And he had to wonder why he should've cared about them. Why care about any of them? Maybe he should let everyone die and return this world to Adam's children if they were here first.

_How you were treated as a child was awful, Shinji, _he suddenly heard a voice in his head, _but not everyone deserves to die just because of the choices made by the handful of people that wronged you, including your father. There are good people in this world that would do what those like your family have forgotten to do. But you can't let the whole world suffer because of how you suffered. It would be cruel, and you're not a cruel person. I have never believed you to be a cruel person, no matter what everyone else believed about you._

_Who…who are you? _He asked, only knowing that it was a lady's voice that spoke to him.

_I am the one that would walk beside you as I would walk beside everyone else that lives and breathes on this world. I am the primordial mother of mankind, Lilith._

_Is this all just a game? Does anything I do matter? Do I matter?_

_What is happening to decide your fate is akin to a game, but the stakes are high. Everything that you do matters. Who you're with, how you feel, where you are, everything. Because you matter. You matter more than you know, more than any of these people will ever know._

_Why?_

_Because I have been waiting for you to come to this underground chamber ever since you took your first breath of life. You above all others, Shinji. What your parents desire for you to do, you don't have to do, no matter what they say. What they believe will happen if nothing goes the way they want it, it doesn't have to be how they desire it. Whatever you heard them say, none of it matters, anymore. None of it has ever mattered. What is happening now matters. What you choose to do now will matter._

As Sachiel approached Shinji, prepared to deal the blow that may kill him, the man felt a glimmer of pride at beating this Unbreakable. This world would go to him and Adam's other children, the true inheritors of the Earth…and all of Lilith's bastards would be erased from the face of the planet.

_Yes…yes…yes! _He thought, his right arm aglow with energy. "You should sleep with the ghosts of the past now. Sleep…forever!"

BLAST! He brought his fist down, but the smoke created from the impact obscured his vision.

"I can't do that," he heard Shinji say to him as the smoke cleared, revealing the boy had blocked his fist with his own right hand. "I understand when you say it's not personal, but…I have to concern myself with what I'm going to do later when I'm older…and I'll only be older if people are around to live out their lives. To do that, I must defeat you and your siblings."

Sachiel frowned, but wasn't as upset with this boy's decision as he should've been. While it would've been nice to defeat an Unbreakable without much resistance, it wouldn't have meant much if there wasn't any real effort thrown in by the Unbreakable to defend himself. To see this one actually being persistent…made him smile at the effort that could finally be put into the goal to win the world for Adam and his siblings.

"Are you really determined to resist the inevitable until the very end?" He asked him.

Rising up, Shinji responded, "You said that Unbreakables were viewed as guardians and protectors, that they give hope to the people, no matter how maimed they are by those that cause them pain. And for the first time in a long time…I want something out of this for myself, not any of these people."

"Hopeful, stubborn and defiant, just the way an Unbreakable needs to be. I like that."

Shinji wiped the remains of blood from his nose away from his face and glared at Sachiel. There was a truth to this discovery that did hurt him, like how he and his father would never reconcile or even just get along, but as he came to accept that the truth of anything was always full of pain, all he could do about it was either own up to it or let it beat him down…and he was down letting it beat him down. If his father was a Light Devourer, then there was no point in hoping for whatever absolution that would never come regarding their lack of a relationship…and he needed to forget about what would never be because those that were involved just for a brief time were no longer interested in the long run. Right now, he had to focus on himself, not those that couldn't or wouldn't see him as who he was instead of what he was.

And he was Shinji Ikari, a fourteen-year-old boy up against a man that wasn't a man that wanted to kill him. He wasn't the only son of Yui and Gendo Ikari, the sole survivor of a train wreck that killed over two-hundred people, or a failed pilot for NERV's Evangelion program. Those titles and designations did not matter, and he needed to show the world this in his own way.

To be continued…

A/N: This chapter didn't end the way I had originally wanted it to, but the initial plot has evolved because of how everything has changed. With the Angels now assuming human forms, this makes the Evas unnecessary and a complete waste of time and resources. With a game that was set into motion a long time ago deciding the fate of everyone and everything, how it will end will depend upon those like Shinji if not Shinji himself. The way Sachiel kept insisting that his actions against people isn't personal comes from Thanos' passion to restore balance to the universe, but in his case, it's only to take back a world that was supposed to go to them instead of the successors of Lilith. What do you think so far now?


	5. I won't forgive you-I will forget you

Creation began on 01-17-20

Creation ended on 05-13-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and Unbreakable: I won't forgive you, but I will forget you

Central Dogma hadn't expected to see a fight like this happen right on their front door, but it was unlike what they were preparing for to begin with. The battle between the Third Child against the Third Angel identified as Sachiel, was anything but ordinary. It was…a battle that blurred the line between mortals and gods. Walls were smashed through, ceilings fallen in and floors littered with debris as both men threw each other around.

_Just how strong is Shinji?_ Misato wondered as she watched on the available cameras as Shinji grabbed a piece of a locker that could've weighed forty pounds, something that he seemed too scrawny to pick up…but was picking up, and he threw it against Sachiel, who was sent flying almost twenty feet in the ruined hallway.

"Incredible," went Ritsuko, watching as Shinji, despite his clothes showing tears and small burns, lacked any measure of injuries, instead just looking like he needed a shower and change of clothes rather than a medical attendant. "He's like a tank."

Gendo, however, couldn't believe that his son had managed to assist in causing so much destruction to the base, something that wasn't supposed to happen because they had been prepared to face an Angel. And yet, they were facing an Angel…and it was damaging their facility…and they hadn't launched an Eva to face it.

-x-

After deciding to desire a future for himself, Shinji found that he was a lot stronger than he thought he wasn't due to this revelation that he was an Unbreakable. He had never so much as fought back since that awful day with his cousin getting on his case, and now here he was, able to dish it out against someone he hadn't known before…and was actually causing him problems because he fought back.

"Very impressive, young man," Sachiel told him as he stood back up from getting thrown around again. "You're embracing your power now. You never knew you had this power, but now that you do, you're just more incredible to face. If I can beat you, I'll go down in the history of the reclaimed world for my family."

"Yeah, well, you have to kill me first," Shinji told him, tearing off what remained of his school shirt and undershirt, revealing a scrawny chest and arms; this kid needed more meat on his bones. "I will not make it easy for you."

"That's good. I love a challenge."

Sachiel had lost his upper clothing and charged towards the boy, his arms glowing with the energy he used earlier to kill those people and tried to kill Shinji with.

Shinji ran towards him, picking up a piece of rebar and brandishing it like a sword.

"Aaaahh!" He yelled as he aimed for Sachiel's neck; like with Sachiel, this wasn't personal, but he was defending himself.

Slam! They collided into one another, resulting in a shockwave that fractured the rest of the hall they were in, creating a small dust cloud that enveloped them.

For a full minute or so, it was quiet, and then the dust settled when the sprinklers activated, showering the walls and floor with water. Standing within the center of the hall were Shinji and Sachiel, frozen in time…until Scahiel fall over with the rebar piercing through his waist and out the back. The left and right sides of Shinji's shoulders and waist were bruised but otherwise leaving him unharmed.

"Urgh," Sachiel groaned, unable to get back up as blood escaped his mouth. "Am I…dying?"

"Yeah," Shinji responded, "I think you are."

"Heh…heh… I hope my siblings will avenge me when they come for you, and they will come for you, Unbreakable. You're all that stands between the Lilin's future…and extinction. But you better beware."

"Beware? Of what?"

"You should know. Any that see you as a threat."

Then…Sachiel was quiet…and his eyes turned completely white as the irises disappeared. His skin turned green and brittle, cracking into pieces, reducing the former man to a dried-up husk.

_Any that see me as a threat, _thought Shinji as he fell to his knees on the ruined floor. _May the kami have mercy upon your soul._

-x-

The damages to the NERV base were heavy and extensive, but were under the budget to repair; since the Evas were never attacked or used in this battle with the Angel, the United Nations couldn't fault NERV's inability to handle the situation. But the real question was how they were going to deal with the remaining Angels if they have all taken on human form, reducing NERV's ability to protect the human race by removing their authority and use of the Evas against them. In addition, if what the Angel had revealed was true, then this meant that NERV needed people like Shinji to protect them from the Angels, not the Evas.

"How is he?" Misato asked the doctor outside the room Shinji was in as he redressed in a new set of clothes.

"If it weren't for the fact that his clothes had been ruined, I wouldn't have thought he was in a battle with someone else that destroyed some of the base's interior," he explained to her. "There's no signs of any injury to his body. No fractures, no broken arms or legs, no spleen rupture, not even signs of cranial damage. So, that brings the next question: Is he staying or leaving?"

"That's for Commander Ikari to decide," she admitted.

Buttoning his shirt up, Shinji, having been given a clean bill of health from the doctor, suspected that his very right to leave Tokyo-3 had been restricted by NERV due to the damages caused by himself and the Angel. But he really did want to leave the city if his own father didn't want him around or could mend their damaged relationship. Not that their relationship could be fixed, that is; Shinji couldn't forget about what Sachiel had told him about Light Devourers being the opposite of Unbreakables, unable to coexist due to both sides being unable to get along.

_There's no point in even debating this,_ he thought, feeling better now that he had a change of clothes and an easier way of thinking about what it was he had to do. _They can't forgive me, but I can't allow this to persist._

"Shinji," he heard Misato say to him as the door to the room opened, "uh…your father wants to see you now."

"That's good," he responded, turning to face her. "I need to see him, too."

-x-

An Angel was killed, but not using an Eva. The Geo-Front had been invaded by an Angel using a human form and was subsequently killed by another human being that was revealed to be difficult to kill if he survived a train wreck. The Committee would demand an explanation as to how an Angel could get into the Geo-Front without any resistance and was defeated without the use of an Evangelion, but Gendo was confident that he could explain to the old men that the situation was handled with very little loss of life.

In truth, less than forty of the personnel had been killed, but some felt that even that was a high number of losses. Because twenty of those people had families waiting for them at home, or spouses or friends, someone that would be waiting indefinitely for them.

The door to his office opened and Captain Katsuragi and the Third Child came in.

"Commander," Katsuragi greeted.

"You look better," Gendo addressed Shinji, who seemed disinterested in hearing what he had to say. "This matter with the Angel is complicated because of what happened. We need to understand exactly between you and the enemy."

"There isn't much of anything to say," Shinji told him. "He attacked me, attacked some people, I attacked him, and he died when he tried to kill me. It was self-defense at best and justifiable homicide at worse. Nothing more, nothing less."

"That's for me to decide. We need to know exactly what was spoken between you two."

"He said trying to kill me wasn't personal."

"Beyond that?"

"There was something about two types of people that can't coexist."

"And do you believe that?"

Shinji thought about it for a while, trying to think of other reasons why he shouldn't, but he didn't have any other alternatives due to having practically no relationships of such positive development. He couldn't even ignore how much he actually wanted to do what he was thinking about doing.

"I can't ignore the possibility that he was telling me the truth," he told his father. "If he wanted to lie, then he died trying to seem convincing."

"Did he say how many of them there were?"

"_Adam was allowed to send twelve of his great ones against the Lilin…while Lilith was allowed to send four of her Unbreakables to protect them," _Sachiel told Shinji, meaning that with this Angel dead, there were only eleven left, and he was probably the only Unbreakable alive that could do anything about them.

"Twelve minus one," he expressed. "Beyond that, there's nothing else I'm sure I can say."

"And what about what he said about Light Devourers?" Gendo wanted to know. "Was he being truthful about that?"

Shinji sighed and then looked at Misato.

"All I can really say is…I'm sorry it had to be this way," he uttered…and then reached over the desk and grabbed Gendo's neck (A/N: Cue to _The Orange Man _theme from _Unbreakable_).

"Aaaugh!" Gendo gasped, feeling Shinji's hands tighten around his windpipe, cutting off his air intake. "Aaaurgh!"

"Shinji, stop!" Misato gasped, trying to remove his arms, but felt like she was grabbing onto a suit of armor. "Stop! Shinji!"

Gendo raised his arms to hit Shinji on his head, but the boy remained emotionless and didn't release his father from his grasp.

"Aaaaurgh!" He groaned as he saw his office door open to reveal security coming in. "Aaaurgh!"

Guards came with tasers and prodded Shinji in his sides and on his back, but he still didn't release his father. One man threatened to shoot him if he didn't release Gendo, but Shinji didn't respond to him.

BANG! The guard fired at his right arm…and the bullet bounced off it, not even leaving a bruise.

Eight people grabbed him and tried to pull him away, but it felt like he made of metal with marble mixed in it.

"What the Hell is this kid made of?!" One of them shouted, grabbing Shinji by his waist.

_I'm sorry,_ thought Shinji as he could feel his father's efforts to breathe decrease, indicating that he was about to cross the line between victim of neglect to victimizer of the same neglect, _but there's no future in which we can ever coexist, Father. You are a Light Devourer…and I'm an Unbreakable. We simply don't go together. We're opposites in every way._

Gendo, losing his glasses, couldn't fight back any longer as his arms fell to his sides…and Shinji released him.

"What did you do?" Misato questioned him as the guards checked Gendo. "What did you do?!"

He looked at her and responded, "What I had to."

One of the guards looked at Misato and nodded his head in the negative; Gendo Ikari was dead, the result of a crushed windpipe and strangulation.

"You killed him," she told Shinji. "You killed him."

"I killed him," he accepted, looking down at his father's remains. "I killed him."

But he didn't feel upset about it. He actually felt…relieved for once. He had just killed his father…and he was feeling as though it were a great thing. It was like he could finally breathe again for the first time in years. Even if they wanted to execute him now, he was finally free of his father's hatred towards him.

Even if they killed him for murdering his father, they couldn't hurt him, anymore. Nothing and no one could hurt him, anymore.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, some of you were expecting that, and Shinji made it happen. With Gendo now out of the way, what will happen next?


End file.
